Title: Meet Our New Chief Economist

Description: Here at GAO, we recognize economic trends can change
quickly and have major impacts on Americans. We publish reports and
provide technical assistance to Congress to help members understand
these emerging issues and their potential policy options. On this
podcast, we sit down with GAO’s new Chief Economist Theresa Osborne to
discuss economic issues and more. 

Released: January 2024

{Music}

[Theresa Osborne:] Economics is really kind of foundational to many of
the questions that come before the GAO.

[Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report. Your source for
fact-based, nonpartisan news and information from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office. I'm your host, Holly Hobbs. Over the last several
years, Americans have seen a big shift in the economy—job losses and
times of unemployment for many because of the pandemic, interest rate
increases and inflation, and even bank failures. But more recently,
we've seen a strong rebound in job growth and inflation coming down from
its previous highs. Here at GAO, we recognize economic trends can change
quickly and have major impacts on Americans. And we publish reports and
provide technical assistance to Congress to help members understand
these emerging issues and their potential policy options. And GAO
recently named a new chief economist to help lead this work. Joining us
today is Theresa Osborne, our new Chief Economist. Welcome to GAO and
thanks for joining us.

[Theresa Osborne:] Thank you. It's great to be with you.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, Theresa, what does it mean to be GAO's Chief
Economist? What's your role?

[Theresa Osborne:] Well, broadly speaking, my role is to have a
strategic view across the agencies portfolio, helping the agency to
enhance the rigor and the policy relevance of its work wherever economic
issues come into play. Help keep the senior leadership and Congress
informed on economic trends and emerging issues. And to think about and
integrate economic concepts and evidence into GAO work wherever it can
enhance its quality and relevance.

[Holly Hobbs:] And what did you do before you came to GAO? What was your
experience?

[Theresa Osborne:] Broadly speaking, my experience ranges from education
policy, agricultural policy to labor market regulation, trade, even
taxation and infrastructure policy. And I've really enjoyed being able
to use the tools of economics to help bring out crucial policy insights
across the board in those areas that matter. I was for a while an
academic researcher and professor. I've also worked in the policy sphere
operationally. So right before GAO, I worked at the World Bank, where I
worked on how to foster poverty reduction through the creation of better
jobs for people in developing countries. What drives the creation of
those jobs and how to create the conditions for the private sector to
succeed and allow those economies to grow, including analyzing the
policy institutional issues that really impinge on poverty reduction. I
also worked at the Millennium Challenge Corporation as the deputy chief
economist there, where we did directly use our analysis and shaping the
emphasis and the design of programs. My goal throughout has been to
bring evidence into policy design more effectively and use my
operational experience also to shape the questions that I ask in my
policy work.

[Holly Hobbs:] Do you have a specific area of economic expertise?

[Theresa Osborne:] I studied applied microeconomics as well as
industrial organization, which is to say how markets operate and whether
there's sufficient competition, how firms form and operate. I've also
become increasingly interested in and focused on how the micro, macro
linkages operate in an economy. So what are the micro foundations, let's
say, of economic growth and job creation, and how indeed do macro forces
influence the micro as well? So using the tools of economics and using
this broad kind of empirical and theoretical orientation, I've really
been focusing on the identification of the key problems in an economic
setting and using that insight to sort of help policy steer towards
devising solutions to that problem.

[Holly Hobbs:] GAO does quite a lot of work on economic trends and the
impacts of economic policies. What do you see as maybe the top economic
trend or issue that we're facing in the near future?

[Theresa Osborne:] Well, depending on what you mean by near… I mean
everybody's focused for the next year or two on how the economy sort of
transitions back to some kind of post-pandemic normal. But I'm more
focused on the medium and long run because economic policy outside of
macro and monetary policy is really focused on setting the right
conditions for the economy to perform over the, let's say, medium to
long run, meaning beyond the next year, beyond those macro indicators.

[Holly Hobbs:] So then what about the medium to long-run issues and
trends?

[Theresa Osborne:] Well, I think the challenges and opportunities in the
medium and long run for the U.S. I put them in kind of three buckets.
First is how changing technology affects markets and what the efficient
market structure should look like, and the level of competition that's
needed and what that looks like to foster innovation and productivity.
And also how that can be done in a way that ensures that whatever growth
and productivity is, is inclusive and provides gainful employment
opportunities for the American people. This would involve policies not
only in antitrust enforcement, but also policies outside of that sphere
like immigration visas, education financing and policy, and intellectual
property—how do we protect intellectual property, and how do we do all
of these things to get the balance right between competition, innovation
and an economic strength for the country? 

[Holly Hobbs:] So that was the first trend. What about the second and
third?

[Theresa Osborne:] The second trend that I think we're seeing is that
people are starting to take the need to address climate change more
seriously in in technological choices and in business strategies. We're
going to see a shift in energy and agricultural practices to combat and
alleviate the effects of climate change, including water resource
issues, how we're going to address weather related crises. And third, we
have to absolutely address the fact that our health care system, our
health care financing system, is not compatible with what we'd like to
see—in terms of higher quality of outcomes in health and longevity with
a lower cost to the population and to the country. We're going to need
to do some things to address that, it’s a big challenge. All of these,
by the way, all of these three buckets of issues affect wages,
employment, labor markets and opportunities more generally for the
American people. So these are the long term issues that I think probably
deserve a great deal of focus.

{MUSIC}

[Holly Hobbs:] So Theresa just told us about some of the short term and
long-term trends that could or already are impacting Americans and our
economy, and about her role in helping guide GAO's work on economics. So
Theresa, is there any economic trend or issue that you think really
needs policymakers attention for 2024, beyond what we've already
discussed?

[Theresa Osborne:] Well, we do face a broader challenge in terms of
fiscal sustainability. Because if it continues to grow in an
unsustainable way, that has great implications for the ability of our
government to address future challenges, existing challenges, as well as
the ability of the United States to be a leader on the global stage.

[Holly Hobbs:] So last question-what do you want our listeners to know
about GAO's work in economics and what's to come?

[Theresa Osborne:] Many, many, many of GAO's thematic areas involve
economics. Economics is really kind of foundational to many of the
questions that come before the GAO. Not only because economic thinking
helps us and policymakers understand why programs may or may not be
effective. But also because many of the themes touch either directly or
indirectly on economics. So you should expect to see, in in key topic
areas, GAO look more deeply at the causes and the economic implications
of the questions that GAO is asked to address in its reports.

[Holly Hobbs:] That was our new Chief Economist, Theresa Osborne. Thanks
for your time, Theresa.

[Theresa Osborne:] Thank you.

[Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
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others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional
watchdog, the US Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.Gov.